Training needs of vegetable growers in organic farming
The study was aimed to bring out the characteristics of vegetable growers and to assess their knowledge and adoption level of organic farming practices and also to find out the relationship between haracteristics of farmers with their knowledge and adoption. It was aimed to assess the training needs of the vegetable growers in adopting the recommended organic farming practices. This study was conducted in five village of Thirupparankundram block of Madurai district. The sample size consisted of 120 vegetable growers with equal representation of marginal, small and big farmers. The respondents were interviewed with a well-structured and pre-tested interview schedule. It was found that majority of the respondents were educated upto middle school level. Majority had high level of farming experience, mass media exposure, progressiveness, perception about organic manures, environmental degradation and feasibility of organic farming practices, medium to high levels of extension agency contact, economic motivation and achievement motivation. Marginal small and big farmers significantly differed in their educational status, extension agency contact, mass media exposure, information source utilization, economic motivation, achievement motivation, progressiveness, perception on organic manures, perception on environmental degradation and perception on feasibility of organic farming. The vegetable growers had high level knowledge and medium level adoption. There existed significant difference among marginal, small and big farmers in their knowledge and adoption levels. The knowledge level of small farmers was significantly more than the marginal and big farmers. Marginal farmers showed high level of adoption than small and big farmers. A vast majority of the respondents had high level of knowledge on farm yard manuring and medium level of knowledge on oilcakes, neem products, enriched farm yard manure, biogas slurry, vermicompost, sugarcane trash compost, coirpith compost, crop residue compost, azospirillum, phosphobacteria, pressmud, Trichoderma viridi, Bacillus thuringiensis. The respondents expressed more training need in the use of biocontrol agents, biopesticides, vermicompost, coirpith compost, biogas slurry, sugarcane trash compost, enriched farm yard manure and biofertilizers. Majority of the respondents preferred peripatetic training conducted in the village schools with duration of three days. Half of the respondents preferred full day training provided by the scientists during summer season. Majority of them preferred lecture method of training followed by demonstration and field visit. Knowledge level of vegetable growers on organic farming was found to be greatly influenced by educational status, farm size, extension agency contact, mass media exposure, information source utilization, economic motivation, achievement motivation, progressiveness, perception on organic manures, perception on environmental degradation and perception on feasibility of organic farming. Adoption level was also influenced by the above mentioned variables except the educational status of the respondents.
Source
Agriculture Sprayers and Dusters by ASPEE Group Of Companies, India. www.aspee.com
Resource Box
This article is written by Ms. M. Maheswari of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai on behalf of ASPEE Agriculture Research and Development Foundation. ASPEE Group of Companies is the leading manufacturer and exporter of Agriculture Sprayers and Dusters
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